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The Anti-Matter Man
The reason that I'm writing this article is as a tribute to Guy Williams. This is one of the few episodes where Williams has the opportunity to shine, without Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) stealing the limelight (sorry Dr. Smith, but I love you too.) ______________________________________________ The episode begins with Will and Dr. Smith. Will is reading a book aloud to Dr. Smith. The book is about alternate dimensions, universes, and realities. The book also mentions a dark parallel world called the antimatter world. In this world everyone has an opposite duplicate of himself or herself Next is shown John Robinson and the Robot. They have taken out the atomic motors from the Jupiter II and are working on them outside. The motors are huge…and John is standing in between them. John commands the Robot to turn the nuclear motors on…as the Robot does this, a duplicate of John Robinson suddenly appears. The duplicate is John’s antimatter evil-self. The duplicate is wearing chains…one around his throat, and others about his arms. He is dressed in a black and white checkered uniform. A lightning storm appears when the duplicate appears. The Robot becomes alarmed and shuts down the atomic motors. When he does this, both John Robinson and his antimatter self disappear. Don and Will rush to the Robot to find out what’s going on. The Robot tells them that when he turned on the nuclear motors that John disappeared. Frantic, Will wants to go after his father immediately. However, Don thinks it would be safer to wait until the electric storm passes through. Maureen, Penny and Judy are all upset now that John is missing. Don convinces them all to go to bed, and they’d find John tomorrow morning when the electrical storm had cleared. However, Will can’t sleep. He goes back outside to where the nuclear motors are sitting. The Robot is also outside by the nuclear motors. Will and the Robot decide that they will recreate the accident in which John disappeared. Will and the Robot turn on the nuclear motors and get between them. After a few second, they both disappear. Meanwhile, the evil antimatter John Robinson has captured the good 'matter' John Robinson. They are in the antimatter universe. Huge white boulders are everywhere. The evil antimatter John begins to drag good 'matter' John with a chain, down a pathway of small white trees with no leaves. Evil antimatter John pulls the chain and good 'matter' John falls upon his face on the pathway. When good 'matter' John looks up, there is also an evil antimatter duplicate of Don. Evil antimatter Don looks scruffy and dirty. Evil antimatter John tells good 'matter' John that he’s taking his place in the matter world and commands him to trade clothes. Evil antimatter John takes the chain collar from around his neck and places it around good 'matter' John’s neck. Evil antimatter John then unzips his uniform and we see a deep scar around his neck from the chain collar. Evil antimatterJohn leaves good 'matter' John with evil antimatter Don so that Don can imprison John. Will and the Robot appear on a pathway between time and space. The pathway appears to be floating and a type of foggy mist seems to emanate from it. They finally reach the door to the antimatter universe. The door is outlined by fire for a few seconds then it dies down. Will and the Robot walk through, then they discover that they can’t move. There are huge white boulders everywhere. Suddenly the huge white boulders move and leave the scene. After the white boulders are gone, Will and the Robot can move and they find a pathway of small white leafless trees and begin to walk down it. Suddenly Will and the Robot come across 'John' on the pathway. Will is overjoyed to see his father and runs into antimatter John's arms and hugs him. Will and John walk down the pathway hand-in-hand, but Will doesn’t realize that it is evil antimatter John and that his ‘real’ matter father is being imprisoned. When antimatter John, Will, and the Robot, all return to the matter universe…everything seems happy and back to normal. However the Robot seems to distrust John. The family wants to have a party to celebrate 'John’s' return…but antimatter John becomes oddly serious and says that there’s no time for it…that they need to get the Jupiter II ready and have it space-worthy immediately. Don and Maureen try to convince John to allow the children to have the party. John thinks for a moment and decides to go ahead and let the children give him a celebration party. At the party strange things happen to people who get too close to the antimatter John Robinson. Both Will's and Don's watches start working backwards. Penny's tape machine is playing songs backwards. After the party antimatter John wants everyone working to get the Jupiter II back in space. John has an angry confrontation with Dr Smith. Maureen attempts to calm John down, but John angrily turns on Maureen and tells her if he wants any of her input that he will ask her for it. Hurt, Maureen turns away and follows the girls inside the Jupiter II to prepare for work. Don tells John that he was way out of line with Maureen. John admits he was wrong, but the only reason that he wants the Jupiter II up and running is because he’s worried about his family. Don seems convinced with John’s story. However, Will eyes John strangely…and doesn’t seem to trust his father as he used to. That night, Will has a strange dream of his father screaming out for his help. Will goes to the main deck of the Jupiter II, where the Robot is waiting. Will tells the Robot about his dream and his doubts about his father. The Robot says that the "John" they have IS Will's father...but at the same time, he is NOT Will's father. The Robot explains that the "John" that they have with them is the antimatter John, and that he is evil. Will and the Robot decide that they will both return to the antimatter world to find the real John. However, Will and the Robot are unaware that the evil antimatter John had secretly listened to their entire conversation. The Robot activates the nuclear motors while Will stands between the two machines. Before Robot can join Will, antimatter John strikes Robot with a steel pipe and the Robot falls down. Will disappears to the antimatter world. Antimatter John runs between the two atomic motors and also disappears to the antimatter world. Since there are two Johns in one world…lightning storms are brewing in both worlds. Due to all the commotion, Don and Dr. Smith rush outside and find the fallen Robot lying next to the nuclear motors. They upright the Robot and he explains everything that has recently happed. The Robot moves to stand between the motors and tells Don to turn the atomic motors on. Dr. Smith dashes to the Robot to argue, however, when Don turns on the motors, both Dr. Smith and the Robot disappear. Dr. Smith and the Robot are both now in the antimatter world. They began to follow the pathway of leafless white trees. Will is already way ahead upon the leafless white tree pathway. Will hears the antimatter John coming after him and begins to run. As Will runs down the pathway he is stopped by antimatter Don who is blocking the path. Will turn around and antimatter John is right behind him. Both antimatter John and antimatter Don take Will to a cave that is guarded by a red alien monster. Inside the cave are the antimatter Robot and the ‘matter’ John. Will sees that they have his father imprisoned inside a cage hanging from the ceiling. John tells them to leave Will alone…and allow him to go back to the ‘matter’ world. Antimatter John says that he is planning to take Will back with him. Will refuses saying he will not leave his true ‘matter’ father. Antimatter Don wants to know when he will trade places with ‘matter’ Don. Antimatter John tells him to be patient…then anitmatter John leaves and forces Will to go with him. It is also quite obvous that antimatter John NEVER plans to exchange antimatter Don with 'matter' Don. Will and Dr. Smith are moving up the pathway of leafless white trees. Antimatter John hears them coming from the oppisite direction…and covers Will’s mouth with his hand…and hides them both until the Robot and Dr. Smith have walked by. Antimatter John and Will continue to the misty/smoky pathway that lies between the two world. Inside his cage in the cave, “Matter” John starts a fight with antimatter Don…and John eventually knocks Don out and escapes from his cage. Dr. Smith and the Robot show up and the Robot knocks out the red alien monster guard. John leaves to confront his doppelganger. The Robot confronts his antimatter self. The antimatter Robot is encaged because of his horrible ways. He calls the Robot a ‘punk’ and tells him to go away. The Robot leaves and the antimatter Robot sings, “Sweet Chariot.” Will tries to tell the antimatter John that he can’t get away with what he’s doing. Antimatter John says that there’s nothing Will can do about it. Will tells the antimatter John that he’s not his father. However, the antimatter John insists that he is. Antimatter John basically tells Will that he’s a only a little boy…and that there’s really nothing he can do about it. Antimatter John then continues to force Will along the pathway. Matter John eventually finds the misty/smoky pathway in between worlds and begins to run after antimatter John and Will. Matter John finally catches up to them and yells Will’s name. Antimatter John pushes Will behind him and confronts the matter John. They begin fighting a nockem-sockem fight-out. However, matter John wins when he throws antimatter John off the pathway between universes. The real John and Will are reunited and they hug-it-out. Now all the family is reunited at the Jupiter II. The real John is busy hugging-it-out with his entire family. The episode ends with Dr. Smith claiming to have saved the day (as usual.) __________________________________________________________________________________________ NOTES: This is said to be a favoite of both Guy Williams and Mark Goddard due to their duel roles. The antimatter John Robinson is supposed to be evil. Whatever he had done in his world, he was punished by being chained and imprisoned. However, everyone is supposed to have an antimatter duplitcate, but we don't see this with Will, Penny, Judy, Maureen, or even Dr. Smith. Perhaps their alternate selves weren't bad enough to warrent imprisonment....so they're not seen. Certainly, Dr. Smith's opposite self had to have been good. We do see two other examples....antimatter Don and antimatter Robot. Don's opposite truly seems sinister and evil...almost nasty in appearance. The Robot's opposite just seems like he's fallen upon hard times rather than being truly evil. However, it is antimatter John who is most baffling. He might have been evil, but he was just as smart at the matter John Robinson. The same can't be said of antimatter Don. Although antimatter John has a temper and is at times short with his family, he often appeared to care about them. This is seen when antimatter John first sees Will and wraps his arms around Will and embraces him. Also antimatter father and matter son walk hand-in-hand down the pathway in the antimatter world. Antimatter John is also seen embracing wife, Maureen and daughers, Judy and Penny. While it's true that antimatter John could have been pretending....one does not know this for sure. He seems sincere when he embraces Will...then holds hands with him. He also appears sincere when he embraces his wife and daughtes. One can only guess that antimatter John had an antimatter wife and children of his own....and truly cared for his 'matter' family as well. Antimatter John had several chances to destroy Will, who kept threatening that he would tell the family that he was the wrong John Robinson. However, antimatter John NEVER even considers this. Also, Will tells the antimatter John that he is NOT his father...however, antimatter John insists that he IS Will's father. Later when 'matter' John confronts antimatter John on the pathway between worlds...we see antimatter John push Will behind him in an effort to profect Will. Could this evil antimatter man actually feel a type of love towards his 'matter' family? It would appear so. __________________________________________________________________________________________ FURTHER NOTES: There really is a such thing as antimatter. Scientist have been able to produce antimatter in VERY small quantities, and it doesn't last long in the our matter world. However, if a large portion of matter coincided with a large portion of antimattter...this would cause an enormous explosion. IF antimatter John had really come to the matter world, he wouldn't last long...for he'd explode in our matter world. It would also have been impossible for Will to hold hands with his antimatter father, for one was matter and the othe antimatter. This would have also produced a huge explosion. As of current scientific facts, matter and antimatter cannot coexist together. Background information *Mark Goddard and Bill Mumy have cited this as among their favorite episodes. *When Don and Will head back to the ship during the storm at the end of the first scene in Act One, they walk towards the camera with the camera centering on the Robot, the take ending with a close-up of the Robot's panel. The shot is not in focus but the lettering on the buttons can be seen. *At the end of the climactic fight scene, when the stunt man falls off the bridge, you can see the dust from the mattress that he falls on. *Anti-matter and matter annihilate each other upon contact. What would be more plausible is that this involves an alternate universe as posited by the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, *The prop book that is supposed to contains description of weird, unexplained legends of the past is a religious work, as evidenced by this image of the page that appears before the one with the Shadow World graphic. *When Will and the robot enter the Anti-Matter world, the shadows of stage hands can be seen moving the large rocks. *Why does the Robot develop a stutter when he enters the Shadow World? *When trying to block out the sound of the moving rocks, Robot puts his hooks up to his bubble as a person would put hands up to their ears. Does this actually block out the noise? *Why does Anti-Robot say “this is opposite world” when speaking of his own dimension? If he’s lived there all his life, one would think that from his point of view, his world would be the real one and our world would be opposite. *Why didn’t we get a glimpse of the Anti-Smith? If he was a proper opposite, he would have been a great guy! Honest, loyal, brave, hard-working, kind, generous... of course, with qualities like that he most likely got killed off rather quickly in the nasty Shadow World. Gallery: Anti-2.jpg|Will ebraces Antimatter John Anti-4.jpg|Will walks with Antimatter John Anti-8.jpg|Animatter John hugs Judy & Penny Anti-3.jpg|Antimatter Don Anti-6.jpg|Anitmatter Robot Anti-5.jpg|Will finds and hugs real John Anti-7.jpg|Real John hugs Penny & Maureen Category:Episodes Category:Episodes in Season Three